Today's tip: Don't become a victim of LINK FARMS!

Everyone knows that one of the top secrets to achieving the best SEO results: powerful, contextual, relates LINKS. Okay, maybe it's not such a secret anymore, but the right links are definitely the best way to gain the most popularity on the web. The SEO beginner may grab for any link he can get his inexperienced hands on, but you know better than that. You know that the beginner's lack of expertise could very well make him the ultimate candidate for any disreputable link farm. As a website constructed solely for the purpose of increasing the link popularity of other sites, a link farm is a threat to any credible website. Generally, the list of links on a link farm site are totally unrelated - posted simply for the purpose of being posted and increasing the number of incoming links to each individual site. Sure, sometimes these sites post links related to just one topic, but that doesn't make them any more legitimate.

Chances are, you know when you're looking at a link farm, but just in case you're apprehensive, it's very easy to tell. Look for mass links; we're talking pages and pages of links. Maybe they're related links, maybe they're not, but either way there will be plenty. Look for very little content. These link farms are definitely not interested in sharing valuable information. Poor maintenance of a site is also usually an indication of a link farm. To a link farm webmaster, the links are all that matter, so the organization of the site is of little importance. A low page rank on top of these other signs is another good indicator. As long as the site isn't brand new, it could already have been penalized by Google. If it hasn't been removed completely, then it could very well have a low page rank.

Considering the extensive knowledge of the search engines, it seems crazy to think that these link farms could possibly work. And that's right, they don't. Most link farms are hosted on the same C-block and registered to the same company or person. Since the search engines are also registrars, they know the hosting and registration details for every site. The search engines have no trouble tracing every one of these links, which will undoubtedly be traced back to the same owner. So what will they do to you? Not only will the search engines immediately remove the link farms, but you can bet that they'll penalize your site, too.

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Today's tip warns against the dangers of buying and selling LINKS.

An obvious disregarding of the rules of the web, buying and selling links indiscriminately for search engine optimization purchases definitely deserves to be punished. Essentially, paying for links is paying to be popular, and no one likes a cheater. This kind of etiquette never worked in high school, and it certainly won't work on the internet. Think about why people use Google in the first place: to find the most relevant answers to their questions. Say Google allowed its site contributors to pay more money to be listed at a higher position on the results page. Eventually, the search engine would lose all of its credibility because it put price before relevance. Search engines are vital resources, and it's crucial that they be able to maintain their integrity. And this explains why Google's patent on its Adwords PPC ad-serving system is so valuable because advertisers are listed according to the relevance of their ad, not just a big price.

Even the search engines, the self-proclaimed police of the internet, have to play by the rules - just look at what happened to Google Japan. In February of 2009, Google, king of the internet, had to penalize one of its own, Google Japan, when it began paying bloggers to write articles about the "hot new keywords" function at the top of its homepage. It consisted of a list promoting the most searched terms typed on the search engine. When selected, these keywords linked to their respective Google searches. Problems arose when Google Japan hired an online marketing company to create buzz about their new tool, which was already available as a widget to webmasters through none other than the pay-per-post function. Although Google rules the web in many countries, Japan is not one of them. Facing heavy competition from Yahoo's search engine, Google Japan chose to disregard its own rules in order to increase its popularity. Without fail, the almighty Google came down hard on Google Japan. The campaign was stopped immediately, and the frantic apologies began. Clearly, Google Japan's remorseful email was not enough, and the search engine had to be punished. Google imposed a tough PageRank penalty upon the Japanese version of itself, bringing its rank down from a 9 to a 5.

If Google is willing to penalize one of its own, its fair to say that no one is safe. Who knows what havoc Google will wreak on your website if it finds out about any shady business? The search engine could drop your page rank, throw out your links, or ban your site from the index for any given phrase. No matter what Google does, you can bet that your site will feel its harmful effects. The best advice: be honest. Don't purchase shady links, and only link to sites that you've looked at to ensure their relevance and quality. If you're really nervous that a link might be seen as manipulative for the Google ranking system, you can request a rel="nofollow" attribute that keeps the link from passing any parameters. Avoid buying and selling bad links at all costs to allow your website to thrive with a clean conscience.

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Today's SEO tip is about the importance of using discretion in all of your URL writing.

Let's face it - even the most diligent SEO guru has a lazy moment or two. Spurred on by that devilish voice in your head, it takes all of your will power to deny taking the easy way out when it comes to handpicking keywords to put in your URL. What you want to do is throw a few directories in front of your previously existing URL; what you should do is take the time to rewrite the elements that actually propel the page's content. Although that tiny addition to your URL seems completely harmless, you have been warned! True, if the legacy URLs are redirected to the new keyword URL to maintain link popularity and de-index the legacy URLs, you'll probably see no consequences. Sure, your now much longer URL will probably get indexed and therefore be free of any impact, but beware! You would hate to be accused of the ultimate sin: keyword stuffing!

The best way to avoid keyword stuffing is to keep it simple. A URL of four or five words that sounds natural can be perfectly normal. I would warn against using a URL that looks like this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/23/honda-formula-one-bernie-ecclestone-richard-branson-jenson-button-bruno-senna-mercedes-benz, (yes, this is actually real). First off, it's just too long. No one would ever physically type a URL of that length if they saw it in print. Second, it looks spammy! A URL like that combined with this particular site, itself, is constantly losing credibility. Not only are almost all of The Guardian's URL's typically like this, but its articles are full of pointless and annoying links. Generally, it's very easy to associate these over-stuffed and obnoxious URLs with a lack of value. Is sacrificing quality really worth a few measly SEO points? Make sure to consider keyword proximity and density before writing your URLs to avoid sacrificing the integrity of your website. Stick with keywords and leave out the junk - adverbs, adjectives, pronouns - think about exactly what your target audience is looking for and what they would type into Google to find it.

Here are a few examples of search engine friendly linking, which is really easy to do when use a content management system that enables you to just type in the keywords you want to use in your URL, and it creates the links for you. (Btw, you would not believe how many ecommerce sites still use links with SKU numbers instead of model names).

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Today's tip for copywriting tactics related to search engine optimization goals will cover what to do with LINKS and how they appear on your site. On my own site at Magmall.com for example, where we sell magazine subscriptions, you can see that there is a clear linking hierarchy in terms of using color and size to set links apart using the ecommerce platform from Adrecom.

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If you do search engine optimization like we do out of our Los Angeles office, it means you have a lot of email addresses for your clients that you are constantly adding and changing for your SEO activities. Remail.me is a simple service that does one difficult thing really well: it helps you switch email accounts safely, simply, and professionally. It does all six things you should do when you switch email addresses, but just don't have the time for.  If you're still hanging on to an old email account because you can't risk losing clients or contacts, this service makes it completely painless to switch.  Leave all the old junk behind, but make sure you don't risk losing anyone you care about -- or who cares about you.  Best of all, the authors are active members of the HARO community so they're giving it to you for FREE through the July 4th weekend. Check it: http://bit.ly/14ITT6

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Michael has some great ideas for internet marketing. These tactics are useful for anyone in the web design business because you can suggest these strategies to clients and look brilliant. Below is the first idea in the category of Persuasion Secrets.

 

Persuasion Tactic #1

 

Work by social psychologists provides proof that we make decisions based on immediate comparisons and perceptual contrasts. That means its very important to frame your best selling product with higher and lower priced offers.

 

For example, if you sell 32, 42 and 52 inch TVs, the 42 inch will always be the best seller. Never worry if your highest price item experiences a slump. At least 5% of your buyers may still choose it. Removing your highest priced model can have a negative effect on your sales. Or in other words, with no 52 inch, the 42 is top end, so the 32 will become the best seller.

 

The good news is, it works the other way too. If you want to sell more of your highest priced product, add another "higher end" item above it.

 

Cool huh? By adding a more expensive 60 inch TV, sales of the 52 will automatically increase. Takeaway Hint: You can apply this psychology to ebooks and digital products as well.

 

to see more of his brilliance visit:

http://www.dynamicmedia.com

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I just received this incredibly useful idea via email today to ensure you get the most rapid response and suppport in case of an emergency where you need medical help.

--- Apparently this is a standard procedure all paramedics follow at the scene of an accident when they come across your cell phone.

ICE
- 'In Case of Emergency' We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.

If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case
of an emergency? Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign. 
  
The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell (mobile) phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or
persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' (In Case Of Emergency). 
  
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile   phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He, therefore, thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE.'

For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!  
Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today! 
    

  ICE will speak for you when you are not able to. 


http://www.snopes.com/crime/prevent/icephone.asp

 

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wow! i am just getting used to people telling me to email them and now i've got to contend with learning a 4th language on top of english, hebrew and spanish. it is called txt or texting. it involves a lot of thumb action and it won't get you a free ride. if you are looking for the ultimate lexicon reference manual, look no further.

Txtpedia is an ultimate texting dictionary. Txtpedia delivers more than 1500 texting, SMS, and IMing abbreviations and their meanings to your iPhone.So, if you can't understand what people are writing,or you are tired of all that extra typing, and want to learn more abbreviations, download Txtpedia. This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.Note: The "Download Now" link directs you to the iTunes App Store, where you must continue the download process. You must have iTunes installed in order to open the link, and you must have an active iTunes account to download the application.

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As high tech as it is in Los Angeles, I'm constantly running out of memory with my Vista PC. Maybe it's because I am switching between programs because sometimes I am in web site design mode, sometimes in SEO mode and sometimes in just reading emails mode. So I am sure I would be better off if I could see where my system is getting dragged down into the muck of overload.

System Explorer software is a full-featured system analyzing tool lets you take a sneak peek at everything that's going on in your system, from currently active processes to installed drivers, including also network collections, startup applications and Internet Explorer add-ons, if you have any. You can end any active process or delete items from the startup menu, to name a couple of examples. System Explorer has the possibility to obtain more information about each process from google, or check it for virus with an online anti-virus tool. The program includes loads of other interesting features. Version 1.5 includes support for external and internal plugins, filtering support to lists, and new plugin adds security enhancements.

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Ok. Since I am so webcentric being so consumed with my web site design and seo rankings business, it makes perfect sense that my kids would pick up some web knowledge just by osmosis. I know things move pretty quickly in Los Angeles and now one of daughters is addicted to email and this brings up an interesting conundrum as a parent. How much do i want my kids to experience personal freedom so that they are able to grow up and mature into therapist free adults. And in this age of instant "on" where everything is up for grabs, how do i set limits on their exposure to the world at large.

Hence, monitoring software. There are plenty of safe surfing tools to try to keep locked into specific web sites but at the end of the day they can get around the limits you place. So I am more inclined to let them feel they are free and to guide them just a little bit less than a back street driver and yet i still want to maintain some sort of protective control over what they do online. So with free monitoring software I can see what they do and though I risk them hitting bad sites or doing things online that are lacking in good judgement, at least I can find out after the fact and then try to take steps to stop it in the future. It's a catch 22 situation and I err on the side of letting them try new things and seeing if they can on their own make the right decisions.

If you are on my side of the fence, you may want to check out All in One Keylogger which lets you to read your family members chat conversations, look at their e-mails, and sites they have surfed. By activating All in One Keylogger, you can monitor everything including blocking unwanted sites/programs. The Key Logger allows you to register all keystrokes typed, including language-specific characters, talk and messages conversations, passwords, e-mails, clipboard, microphone sounds, captured screenshots, desktop, and Internet activity.

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